


You're Not The First

by Doteruna



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Electrocution, Emotional Hurt, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, M/M, Rescue, Threats of Rape/Non-Con, Torture, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-08
Updated: 2018-11-08
Packaged: 2019-08-20 14:18:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16557362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doteruna/pseuds/Doteruna
Summary: Roy and Ed are kidnapped and their attacker wants information only Ed can give him.





	You're Not The First

Roy Mustang wakes up with a pounding headache, hands bound above his head, and the stench of old water and mold that usually accompanies dank basements permeating the air. As his vision clears, the room comes into focus; a small, dark rectangle with a door at the end and a table covered with...instruments on it. Knives, syringes, pliers, typical amateur torture implements. Roy’s eyes skimmed over the tools before continuing around the room as he tested his restraints. A solid wood block with two holes for his wrists, keeping his hands too far apart to touch, and hoisted high enough that he was almost on his toes. His uniform jacket had been taken, as well as his boots and obviously his gloves. Damn.

He twists to see if there’s anything along the wall next to him and is momentarily stunned, before his memories filter back again. He and Ed had been driving back to Central Command after doing a routine checkup on a State Alchemist in the countryside; they’d almost been home when a woman with a broken-down car on the side of the road flagged them down. They’d stopped to help, and then everything had gone black.

Ed was propped up against the wall in a standing position, held up by the shackle on his left wrist that yanked his arm high above his head, barely allowing him to touch the floor with his socked feet. His ankles were both cuffed, first to each other and then into a ring set into the floor to prevent him from pulling his legs up. His automail arm was missing at the shoulder, but since that shoulder was facing away from him, Roy couldn’t tell if it was properly removed or torn off. There was a dried stream of blood running from under his bangs to his chin, and his eyes were closed.

“Fullmetal,” Roy tried. “Hey. Fullmetal.” 

Nothing.

“Edward.”

A small twitch and a wrinkled nose, and gold eyes cracked open.

“Nnngh...Mustang?” he slurred, coughing. “What the--aw, damn.”  
Chains rattled as Ed tried in vain to wriggle out of the bonds, glaring at the metal that tightly encased his wrist. There wasn’t enough give in the chain to let him twist and reach the wall behind him either, in case he somehow had something to draw a transmutation circle with. He hissed as his wrist strained painfully to see how far he could move it, but after a few moments he relaxed.

“What in the hell happened?” he groused, casting an accusatory glare at Roy. 

“I could ask you the same thing, Fullmetal,” Roy countered. “You, at least, have defensive wounds. The last thing I remember is getting out of the car to help the young woman on the side of the road.”

“Oh, yeah,” Ed moaned. “Shit, it’s coming back. As soon as I stepped out of the car, some old man popped up from behind hers and shot some type of dart at you. He got me with one before I could even react, but I remember jumping at him anyways. Blacked out before I could do anything.”

“We were about an hour’s drive away from Central,” Roy mused. “No way of knowing how long we were out, but it’s probably not more than a few hours since you haven’t complained about starving yet.”

“Hey, eating properly is the key to maintaining this strong body. Speaking of, where the hell is my arm?” Ed twisted far enough towards Roy to show his stump, where wires and twisted metal poked out from the port on his shoulder. “Winry’s gonna kill me. If whoever took us doesn’t do it first.”

With that, a morbid silence fell. Whoever took them obviously wanted them alive. Not uninjured, because Ed was already bleeding and there were knives on that table, for crying out loud. Political agenda was likely, because Roy was a prime candidate for the next Fuhrer, but since they’d taken Ed as well, information was probably what their captors, whoever they were, were after. Why they’d taken Ed’s automail arm but not his leg was debatable; a security measure, a trophy, because they were scared they couldn’t secure it? They’d have to wait and see.

“It’s cold in here. They didn’t have to take our jackets. They’re just being dicks,” Ed grumbled, and Roy suppressed a sigh.

“Yes, because kidnapping us, hacking off your arm, and leaving us in here was a demonstration of their hospitality,” he said dryly. “I just want them to get on with it so we can devise a nefarious escape plan and get out of here. I was looking forward to making dinner tonight.”

“Shut up about your stupid dinner,” Ed pouted. “You have any give in your chains? I can barely move but if you can twist your hand to reach the wall, we might be able to draw an array.”

“I’ve already tried it,” Roy replied. “I can almost touch it, but not without breaking my wrist or thumb.” Ed scoffed.

“Great. Guess we’ll have to stand here and wait for what’s-his-dick to introduce himself.”

“Now, that’s not very polite, is it?”

Roy could practically feel Ed’s eye-roll as the door creaked open with perfect timing. A tall, thin man entered, wearing a white lab coat (“Typical”, he heard Ed sigh) glasses and greying hair. He carried a clipboard and stopped several feet from them. 

“My name is Doctor Brian G. Davis. I’m an alchemist, like you two, but I was denied my State Alchemist license for thirteen years in a row.” 

“I remember you,” Roy spoke up. “I was on a few of the review boards that decided to withhold the license. Your work was wild, untamed, and risky. Sloppy.”

Davis’ mouth curled into a snarl, and he strode up to Roy and smacked him across the face with the clipboard. 

“My arrays are art! My research is incredible! I was so close, so close to finishing the final array that would convince you to make me a State Alchemist! My work needed only one more piece but this brat--” He turned to face Ed, stalking over and grabbing his chin in a bruising hand. “This damned brat had to go and arrest the man I was learning from and destroy his research!”

He threw Ed’s head back into the wall with a crack before turning away, pulling at his hair as he muttered. 

“I was so close. I was going to be an artist. My array only needed a little more work...Jonathan was going to help me…”

“Wait,” Ed said, grimacing from the blow to his skull. “Jonathan? Jonathan Meyer? That crazy electric alchemist from a month ago?”

“He was my partner! My teacher!” Davis cried. “He was helping me develop my array but then you had to sweep in with your automail and your flashy coat and arrest him, and destroy his research! Years of work, gone! Because of you!”

“His research was dangerous,” Ed snarled. “His arrays were off. They would have sent electricity straight back into him the second he put his hands on them. He was never going to figure it out, and I didn’t want anyone else trying.”

“Too bad,” Davis smiled, and Roy felt the blood drain from his face as the man strode over to the table and picked up a sharp knife. “I’m going to keep trying until I get it right.” He dug the tip of the knife under Ed’s shirt and tore down, slicing the fabric in half but not cutting skin. “I’m going to keep trying it on you, so I can have some immediate feedback on my work.” The knife poked into Ed’s arm next, far enough to allow a trickle of blood to seep down his arm and into the remains of his shirt. 

Davis dipped his finger into the blood and began drawing an array on Ed’s chest, consulting his clipboard every few minutes, while Ed raved and belittled and insulted him. Roy, however, just watched, carefully analyzing the lines being drawn onto his subordinate’s skin. He had sent Ed onto that mission to arrest the so-called ‘Electric Alchemist’ and trusted Ed to make the right decisions regarding the spread of his research. Roy himself had never seen the pages Ed had burned, but even he could see the flaws in the array. It was clumsy and wild, a mixture of the old work Davis had brought in and whatever Breyer had made progress on. It was better, but would still send a loop of energy through the victim and into the alchemist. 

“Done,” Davis grinned, and placed his hand on the bloody circle. Ed yelled one more insult at him before the array came to life, blue lines lighting up before turning into crackling electricity. Ed screamed and convulsed, shuddering as the electricity flooded through him and back into Davis. 

“Argh!” Davis cried out as he ripped his hand away, not nearly as singed as Ed was. “What did I do wrong? I thought I had it!” 

The doctor moved back to the table, where a damp cloth was resting, and cleaned the blood off Ed’s chest before attempting a second array. Ed’s chest was heaving with gulping breaths, but the fire in his eyes convinced Roy that he wasn’t too badly hurt. 

“Fullmetal,” he called quietly, and Ed’s eyes slid over to him from where they’d been glaring at the top of Davis’ head. “Hang in there.”

Roy could almost, almost twist his hand far enough in the shackles to touch the wall. If he broke his thumb or wrist to reach it, he wouldn’t be able to snap and call forth his Flame Alchemy. He just needed Ed to hold on until he could work himself free.

But then Ed was screaming again as the room was lit with blue, the smell of burning flesh beginning to rise. Davis’ hand was burned, but Ed was slumped against the wall, dangling from his one good arm. What was even more alarming, though, was the fact that his automail leg seemed to crumple under him, bearing no weight.

“Oh, that’s interesting. I didn’t think it was possible to short out automail like this. Let’s try again, shall we?”

The next thirty minutes passed much the same way. Roy found himself helpless but to watch as Ed was electrocuted over and over, Davis getting angrier with each failure. He began to take it out on them, punching Ed or kicking him, and smacking Roy whenever he wandered too far from the shaking boy. 

“Why? What am I doing wrong? I’ve spent years on this! This is ridiculous!” Davis exclaimed as Ed came down from another round of torture, unable to even spit curses at the man. “How could I possibly be failing at this?” 

“‘uck you,” Ed slurred, so quietly Roy almost couldn’t hear it. “You’ll never get it right. You’ll never know what I know. You’ll always fail.” 

Davis froze.

Then he snarled, ran over to the table, and grabbed a lead pipe. Ed, the fool, only grinned. 

“You’ll never succeed at this!” he crowed, then grunted as the pipe landed on his ribs. Luckily, Davis wasn’t the strongest man in the world, but he still felt his bones creaking as the pipe came down again and again. Roy was yelling at him, trying to get him to stop, but Davis’ eyes were wide with fury and delusion. 

“I will not fail!” he yelled as he unshackled Ed, throwing the young man to the ground. With only a single arm and leg that wasn’t responding, shaking and hurting from the electrocution and beating, Ed couldn’t defend himself as Davis kicked and swung the pipe at him. “I will beat it out of you!”

“Look at me!” Ed roared, his scars on full display with his shirt long gone. “Look! People have tried beating information out of me before! It’s never worked, not once! I’m not afraid of pain and I’m certainly not afraid of you!”

Davis dropped the pipe. 

“Oh, but you should be,” he cooed, his voice scarily gentle. “You should be, Little Alchemist.”

And before Ed could even respond, Davis had dropped to the floor over him, placing one large hand over the front of Ed’s pants. Roy stopped breathing.

“You should be scared. I could do anything to you right now. You can’t fight back. Your general over there can’t help you. I could do whatever I wanted, I could do terrible, terrible things to get you to talk.” His hand moved over Ed, cupping and grasping, and for a brief second, Roy saw true fear in those beautiful golden eyes before icy steel returned.

“So? You think you’re the first person to do that? You think you’re the first man to threaten me with that? I’ve faced down your kind before, and you’re not nearly as scary as you think you are.”

“I could force your general to watch as I took your lithe little body right here on the floor.” Davis breathed into his ear as he straddled Ed. His tongue darted out to lick it. “I could shove this pipe so far up you that you wouldn’t be able to give me answers, so matter how much you wanted to.”

“You don’t have the fucking balls,” Ed sneered. 

“Fine then,” Davis shrugged, and twisted to grab the pipe. 

Ed’s automail knee slammed up into Davis’ groin, and his arm came up to grab the man’s coat collar. Rolling them over, he smashed Davis’ head into the ground once, twice, three times. Blood sprayed and only when the man’s body stopped jerking did Ed let go. 

He sagged back, panting, as Roy stared at the back of his head. Then he gulped and pushed himself to his feet, limping as the automail creaked and shook. 

“So glad you were here to watch me do all the hard work,” he muttered, stumbling to the table where the keys for the cuffs were. “I deserve a raise.”

“That you do,” Roy said faintly as his hands were freed and the keys dropped into them for him to release his feet. “Fullmetal--”

“We need to get out of this stupid place,” the younger alchemist cut him off. “Who knows how far we are away from any help. Also, that bitch from the car might be upstairs.”

“I’m going first,” Roy declared as he reached the door first. “You’re injured. Stay here until I tell you it’s clear.”

“No way am I gonna let you get all the glory for escaping,” Ed protested as he hobbled behind Roy, who opened the door and climbed the few steps to the upper level of the house they were in. A quick sweep found nobody hiding in the house, and there was a telephone in the kitchen. 

“Make sure that thing actually works,” Roy told him. “I’m going to look outside to see if we know where we are so they can send someone to pick us up.” 

Ed made his way to the phone, pulling a chair from the kitchen table with him to collapse into next to it. Roy pulled the curtains from the big window by the front door, cautiously peeking outside before standing fully in the center of the window. 

“Dammit. We’re only about a half mile away from Central Command,” he swore. “Furton Street and Clark Avenue.”

Ed nodded and dialed one of the only numbers he had committed to memory. 

“General Mustang’s office,” Havoc’s bored voice answered. For a second, Ed didn’t know what to say.

“Hey, Havoc,” he heard his mouth say. 

“Boss? Oh, god, First Lieutenant! It’s Ed!” Muffled talking, then Hawkeye’s firm voice. 

“Edward? Where are you? Is Mustang all right?” she asked. He could hear her voice shaking just a bit. How long had they been gone?

“We’re okay. We’re in a house on Furton and Clark. What day is it?”

“May third,” she replied crisply. “You’ve been missing for almost a full day. Alphonse is going crazy.”

“Man, I’ll bet,” Ed managed to chuckle, but it turned into a wet coughing. He dropped the phone, and it swung from it’s cord as Roy’s hands appeared on his back and shoulder. “I think...I might’ve broken a rib or two.”

“Well that’s nothing new,” Mustang said quietly as he picked up the telephone. “First Lieutenant Hawkeye. Yes, I’m fine. No, he’s not. Yes. Definitely. No, definitely not that. Yes.” Hanging up the phone, he knelt down in front of the chair so he could see Ed’s face. “I found my jacket but not yours. Here.” Heavy wool was laid on his back as he coughed again, his vision greying. “Hang in there, Fullmetal. Don’t fall asleep. Ed. If you’re unconscious when Hawkeye gets here I’m telling her that I saved us.”

“Not--” Cough. “On your--” Cough. “Life.” A wet hacking before one golden eyebrow raises. “Are you...trying to make a joke?”

“That bad, huh?” Roy answered, his voice uncharacteristically gentle. “They’re almost here, Ed. How are you feeling?”

“I wanna sleep for a year,” Ed groaned, eyelids fluttering, and then time got fluid for him. He could hear Roy talking to him but was unable to make out the words. The door slammed open and there was a lot more blue in the blurry kitchen than there had been before, and then he was being tipped forward and onto someone’s back. The scent of cigarette smoke told him it was Havoc, and luckily the piggyback ride was just to the car or he would have died of shame. As soon as he heard Riza’s voice tell him, “Just a few more minutes, Edward,” he let the darkness take over. 

 

Roy wasn’t able to visit Ed until the next afternoon. Hawkeye forced him into his own examination to confirm that none of his injuries were serious before paperwork and the military police whisked him away to deal with the body they’d left behind in the house. He’d gotten only a couple hours of sleep, and when he first stepped into the hospital room and saw Ed asleep on the bed, a pang of jealousy had swept through him. It was immediately replaced by guilt, and Roy dropped into the chair Alphonse had vacated only hours earlier. 

“I’m sorry, Fullmetal,” he said quietly. “I’m sorry you had to be the one to get us out of that mess. I’m sorry you were the one he experimented on. I’m sorry that I’m always failing to keep you safe. I’m sorry I dragged you into this whole thing when you’re still a child.”

“‘m not a child,” came the slurred reply, and Ed cranked his eyes open. “Don’t apologize. Not your fault we got kidnapped. This time.”

“No, but I still mean it. And Fullmetal….Ed. About...what you said. To Davis.”

Ed’s eyes shut again. Roy clenched his fist.

“Is he dead?”

“One of them is. And the other is locked up. So don’t worry about it.”

“Of course I’m going to--” Roy nearly shouted, then sighed. “You’re my subordinate. That makes me responsible for your wellbeing and safety, and I failed you. Just...when?”

“I fight against monsters for the sake of humanity and this country all the time,” Ed says, eyes opening to stare right at Roy. “Sometimes the monsters are human.”

“I’m glad you’re okay,” Roy replied, and if his voice cracked, neither of them mention it.


End file.
